Rainbow Valley eBook

Dan got no further. Walter had hurled himself
across the intervening space and knocked Dan off the
fence backward with one well-directed blow.
Dan’s sudden inglorious sprawl was greeted with
a burst of laughter and a clapping of hands from Faith.
Dan sprang up, purple with rage, and began to climb
the fence. But just then the school-bell rang
and Dan knew what happened to boys who were late during
Mr. Hazard’s regime.

“We’ll fight this out,” he howled.
“Cowardy!”

“Any time you like,” said Walter.

“Oh, no, no, Walter,” protested Faith.
“Don’t fight him. I don’t
mind what he says—­I wouldn’t condescend
to mind the like of him.”

“He insulted you and he insulted my mother,”
said Walter, with the same deadly calm. “Tonight
after school, Dan.”

“I’ve got to go right home from school
to pick taters after the harrows, dad says,”
answered Dan sulkily. “But to-morrow night’ll
do.”

“All right—­here to-morrow night,”
agreed Walter.

“And I’ll smash your sissy-face for you,”
promised Dan.

Walter shuddered—­not so much from fear
of the threat as from repulsion over the ugliness
and vulgarity of it. But he held his head high
and marched into school. Faith followed in a
conflict of emotions. She hated to think of
Walter fighting that little sneak, but oh, he had
been splendid! And he was going to fight for
her—­Faith Meredith—­to punish
her insulter! Of course he would win—­such
eyes spelled victory.

Faith’s confidence in her champion had dimmed
a little by evening, however. Walter had seemed
so very quiet and dull the rest of the day in school.

“If it were only Jem,” she sighed to Una,
as they sat on Hezekiah Pollock’s tombstone
in the graveyard. “He is such a fighter—­he
could finish Dan off in no time. But Walter doesn’t
know much about fighting.”

“I’m so afraid he’ll be hurt,”
sighed Una, who hated fighting and couldn’t
understand the subtle, secret exultation she divined
in Faith.

“He oughtn’t to be,” said Faith
uncomfortably. “He’s every bit as
big as Dan.”

“But Dan’s so much older,” said
Una. “Why, he’s nearly a year older.”

“Dan hasn’t done much fighting when you
come to count up,” said Faith. “I
believe he’s really a coward. He didn’t
think Walter would fight, or he wouldn’t have
called names before him. Oh, if you could just
have seen Walter’s face when he looked at him,
Una! It made me shiver—­with a nice
shiver. He looked just like Sir Galahad in that
poem father read us on Saturday.”

“I hate the thought of them fighting and I wish
it could be stopped,” said Una.

“Oh, it’s got to go on now,” cried
Faith. “It’s a matter of honour.
Don’t you dare tell anyone, Una.
If you do I’ll never tell you secrets again!”